Introduction

Open Energy Management System

OpenEMS is a modular platform for energy management applications.
It was developed around the requirements of controlling, monitoring and integrating energy storage systems together with renewable energy sources and complementary devices and services.

OpenEMS IoT stack

The OpenEMS 'Internet of Things' stack contains three main components:

OpenEMS Edge runs on-site and actually controls the devices

OpenEMS UI is the generic user interface

OpenEMS Backend runs on a (cloud) server, connects the decentralized Edge systems and provides aggregation, monitoring and control via internet

Features

The OpenEMS software architecture was designed to leverage some features that are required by a modern and flexible Energy Management System:

Fast, PLC-like control of battery inverters and other devices

Easily extendable due to the use of modern programming languages and modular architecture

OpenEMS UI Screenshots

System architecture

OpenEMS is generally used in combination with external hardware and software components
(the exception is a simulated development environment - see Getting Started)
As a brief overview, this is how OpenEMS is used in production setups:

Figure 1. OpenEMS system architecture

Development guidelines

Development follows the Agile Manifesto and is driven by the Scrum methodology.
The source code is available online at http://openems.io and on GitHub .
New versions are released after every Scrum Sprint and tagged accordingly.
Version numbers are built using the pattern year.number of sprint, e.g. version 2018.4.0 is the result of the fourth sprint in 2018.
Git development follows the Gitflow Workflow, so the master branch always holds the stable release, while active development is happening on the develop branch or in separate feature branches.

Open Source philosophy

OpenEMS development was started by FENECON GmbH , a German company specialized in manufacturing and project development of energy storage systems. It is the software stack behind FEMS - FENECON Energy Management System and widely used in private, commercial and industrial applications.

In 2019 governance of the OpenEMS project was taken over by the newly founded "OpenEMS Association e.V. (i.Gr.)". We are inviting third parties - like universities, hardware manufacturers, software companies, commercial and private owners,…​ - to use OpenEMS for their own projects and are glad to support them with their first steps. In any case if you are interested in OpenEMS our development team would be glad to hear from you at info@openems.io.

OpenEMS is funded by several federal and EU funding projects. If you are a developer and you would like to get hired by one of the partner companies or universities for working on OpenEMS, please send your motivation letter to info@openems.io.